December 22, 1988 - A Feathery Tale of Christmas, Part IIPhge 1 oAf The Suffolk Times /December 22, 1988
A Feathery Tale of Christmas, Part 11
By Paul Stoutenburah
The story continues with little Paul
having just been told by his dad if he
made a wish when he saw the shining
star on top of the Christmas tree and
was good enough and the wish not im-
possible, it might come true. You re-
member Paul had seen a yellow parakeet
in the pet store he really wanted for
Christmas.
"Could it be ?" He tried not to look
too excited. "A real wish. It would have
to come true if it was part of a Christ-
mas tree." A new excitement came over
him. "I know what I'll do. I'll wish for
a parakeet, and if at all possible (even
though I know it is sort of impossible),
could it be a yellow parakeet ?" He shut
his eyes and held his breath and made
his wish. That night when he went to
bed he couldn't think of anything else
but what his dad had told him about
making a wish when you saw the shin-
ing star on top of the Christmas tree.
Unknown to little Paul, the grumpy
old man had taken the bird home in a
small cardboard box to his house outside
of town. He had never had a bird before
and didn't know the first thing about
them. He had never even fed birds in the
wintertime. He didn't care about them
that much. Mr. Grumpy now had the
bird home but had to move it to the
cage he bought especially for it.
"How do you get a bird from a box
into a cage ?" he thought. "I'll put some
seed in the cage and then open the box
and let him fly in." Mr. Grumpy,
thought to himself, "I'll give it a try."
It sounded good to him, but anyone who
knows anything about birds knows it
would never work. Sure enough, when
he opened the box Yellowbird flew out
all right, but not into the cage. He flew
right up on the chandelier close to the
ceiling.
Yellow Makes His Escape
Mr. Grumpy was really mad now. He
sputtered and issued some awful words
because Yellowbird had not done what
he wanted him to do. He'd show him.
He'd go out in the garage and get a net
and catch him. As soon as the door
opened, Yellowbird took a swoop down
from the chandelier and out the door he
flew! The last anyone saw of Mr.
Grumpy was of him running down the
street after the bird mumbling some-
thing about "a $13.95 ball of feathers."
Focus on
Nature
Meanwhile, little Paul was getting in
the Christmas spirit. He'd gotten pre-
sents for his mom and dad and sister and
they were all wrapped and hidden under
his bed. The weather forecast for
Christmas night was cold and windy
with a chance of snow. It's going to be
perfect, he thought, for Christmas day
and Santa's sleigh. Then he repeated his
wish for Yellowbird which, of course,
he kept to himself.
Sure enough, it did start to snow late
that afternoon and the wind started to
blow. Now, parakeets can't take too
much cold because they came from
down south where the weather is warm.
If little Paul knew that Yellowbird was
out in the cold all alone he would have
worried about him. Yellowbird had
never been so cold in all his life and had
never seen snow before. He'd have to
find a place to hide where it was warm
or he'd freeze to death.
The night before Christmas everyone
in little Paul's house was full of
Christmas joy. He and his sister set out
some milk and cookies for Santa for
they heard he was always hungry. Then
they thought maybe that was why he
was so plump since he ate cookies at
everybody's house. The last thing they
did was hang up their Christmas stock-
ings that Nannie had made for all the
grandchildren.
With all these last- minute details
taken care of, little Paul took one last
look at the Christmas tree before going
upstairs to bed. He particularly looked at
the big silver star at the top of the tree,
and just for luck repeated his wish. It
was hard to go to sleep that night won-
dering about Christmas. Once he
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
PARAKEET — Parakeets sometimes escape to the outdoors where
freezing temperatures and long periods of cold can often do them in.
The new
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thought he heard Santa's reindeer and
then there was a lot of noise downstairs
like boxes and things being moved
around, but soon he was fast asleep.
He woke up just as it was getting
light. It was Christmas morning and
little Paul couldn't believe it was finally
here. He got out of bed and tiptoed down
the stairs. There was that wonderful
glow from the Christmas -tree lights in
the living room. All along the wall
were Christmas cards his mother had
hung up. No one else was awake as yet,
but little Paul couldn't contain himself;
he had to see what was down there.
A Christmas Surprise
Finally, when he peeked around the
corner, there was the Christmas tree in
all its glory and under it all kinds of
boxes and toys. There was even a shiny
new bicycle and a big fluffy doll for his
sister, but then little Paul's heart sank,
for he could see no cage and no Yellow -
bird. His wish hadn't come true. He was
just about to turn around and go back
upstairs to wait for his sister when he
heard a chirp.
It sounded like a parakeet, but there
was no cage and he couldn't see any bird
— but there it was again! This time he
looked up at the big silvery stars on the
Christmas tree and there was Yellowbird
sitting on the very top of the tree. How
did he get up there? Little Paul was so
excited he couldn't contain his feelings.
"Mommy! Daddy! Come see my para-
keet! He's here. He's alive and he's on
the top of the tree. He's sitting on the
wishing star!"
After everyone had calmed down, little
Paul's dad figured it all out. It must
have been an escaped parakeet outside in
the cold looking for a place to stay,
when Santa came along. It must have
jumped in his bag of toys and come
down the chimney with him. It was the
only way he could have gotten in and he
did have a little smudge of soot on his
noise and tail, so that was probably
what had happened.
Oh how wonderful this Christmas
was going to be now that Yellowbird
had finally found a home where people
would love him. He knew%he would be
happy here.
It just goes to show you if you're a
good boy or girl and see a big, shiny
star at the top of a Christmas tree and
make a wish that isn't impossible, your
Christmas wish might just come true.
Meng Christmas!
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